SAN DIEGO MOUNTAIN RESCUE TEAM MEMBERS SEARCH IN TOUGH TERRAIN

They are the people who drop everything and go when a child disappears or a hiker goes missing.

The 75 volunteers that make up the San Diego Mountain Rescue Team are the experts to turn to when the terrain gets especially rough, specializing in rescues at 8,000 feet or higher.

They rigorously train every month in challenging environments.

Last August, the rock-climbing and outdoor enthusiasts trained in the desert in 117-degree heat. Last month, they did maneuvers in the mountains in 8-degree chill.

The team, founded in 1967, assisted in the rescue of 29 people last year.

They were key in the recovery effort of Guillermo Piño Jr., who disappeared and died in the mud cave region of the Anza-Borrego Desert last Easter. The volunteers, who work side-by-side with the sheriff’s search and rescue unit, also aided in the hunt for Chelsea King and Amber Dubois, who were killed by sex offender John Gardner.

“These are generally unsung, quiet heroes who go about their business finding and saving those in peril, and then go quietly home,” said Sheriff Bill Gore.

When recently called to assist in a search for a lost hiker in the Sierras of Northern California, the team came upon the remains of another hiker who had not yet been reported missing, Gore said.

Not all searches are so grim. Like the one for a missing woman in Mira Mesa. She ended up being found — partying it up at Comic-Con.